Sid Gentle Films (The Durrells in Corfu) has acquired the rights to Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling five-book series The Cazalet Chronicles. Variety reported that the production company "was founded by award-winning drama producer Sally Woodward Gentle, formerly creative director of Downton Abbey production house Carnival Films."
"Elizabeth Jane Howard is an extraordinary writer, a highly skilled storyteller of understatement and deceptive simplicity," Woodward Gentle said. "The novels are totally addictive with the ability to floor you with their turn of events. They are set in the middle of the 20th century but the themes of love, loss, repression, sex and family ties are shot through with 21st century resonance. I am thrilled that Sid Gentle Films Ltd. has the opportunity to bring this wonderfully epic, family saga to a new generation of drama lovers."
Production has begun on the second season of The Durrells, which was adapted from Gerald Durrell's book My Family and Other Animals and has been "a ratings and critical success for the U.K.'s ITV," Variety wrote. The first six-part season airs on PBS beginning Sunday.